In the words of Ronnie O'Sullivan, John Higgins produced "a professional performance" to dump the 'Rocket' out of the Welsh Open yesterday to book his first final in the event for an amazing 10 years.
On that occasion, the 'Wizard of Wishaw' edged past Stephen Lee 9-8 in an intriguing showpiece and faces defending champion Ali Carter today after he saw off puntinplay's 14-1 hope Stephen Maguire.
Ahead of the clash with Carter, Higgins commented: "The final will be tough. Ali is back to the way he can play. He's had a family and we all know how that can take up your time, but he's back to cueing well again. I'm sure it will be a big match."
The Scot is a very measly 4-11 with bet365, Skybet, Ladbrokes and totesport to win his 21st ranking title, with Boylesports offering a best price of 4-9. But is it really going to be that one-sided a final? I think not.
Higgins may have seen off O'Sullivan and Mark Selby en route to the final in what was a decidedly tough half of the draw, but Carter has been a revelation all week in Newport in producing his best snooker of the season. He's had a tough passage of his own – much harder than when he won this last year – after being paired against Neil Robertson and Stephen Maguire, and he's never really been troubled in any of his matches, winning them all pretty easily.
The 'Captain' is a best price of 11-5 with bet365 to win only his second ranking event in his third final and become only the third player to retain the crown after Steve Davis and O'Sullivan. If the final was a continuation of the best of 11 theme then Carter would be a stonking proposition at 11-5, bit now it's the first to nine that puts the ball firmly in Higgins' court.
I do think Carter is showing enough to defeat the Scot, although better bets abound such as the 6-4 (bet365) about Carter to make it to three frames first and 10-3 to be winning after the first four frames.
Overall though, it may be better to hang fire, see what happens in the first session and have a 'puntinplay' later on in the afternoon/early evening in which place Carter may be a better proposition.
